Abstract
World Health Organization (WHO) had promulgated Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic in the early year 2020. Following that, the National Security Council of Malaysia had announced the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March 2020 to curb the disease. This social distancing measure had inevitably induced undesirable psychological responses among the public, including medical students. In this study, we aim to determine the psychological responses of medical students during the MCO period and their coping strategies. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 245 medical students of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) from 24th to 30th April 2020, using an online questionnaire comprising demographic data, Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21), and Brief COPE questionnaire. Nearly 30% of medical students experienced stress, anxiety, or depression. Among all, 9.4% had reported severe anxiety. There were significant differences between avoidance coping strategies and negative psychological responses. In general, the medical students preferred approach coping strategies (M = 29.19, SD = 9.27). Religion (M= 5.62, SD =2.10) was the most favored coping strategy while the least had abused substance (M=2.16, SD.77). A significant statistical difference was revealed in the choice of coping between the genders, for positive reframing, religion, humour, and substance abuse. Pre-clinical students were noted to have significant stress and anxiety levels and more inclined to use avoidance coping strategies. Psychological interventions are essential to address the mental health problems among university students during current and future disasters based on the understanding of their coping strategies.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new acute respiratory disease and was announced as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11th March 2020
Symptoms presented by patients with COVID-19 infection include fever, cough, fatigue, sputum production, shortness of breath, sore throat, headache, myalgia or arthralgia, chills, nausea or vomiting, nasal congestion, diarrhea, hemoptysis, and conjunctival congestion, they can be asymptomatic (World Health Organization, 2020a, 2020b)
Almost half (48.6%) of the students were staying with their families during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period, and a vast majority (97.6%) of them were physically healthy (Table 1)
Summary
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new acute respiratory disease and was announced as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11th March 2020. COVID-19 and social distancing measures that were implemented in many countries had caused some disruptions to everyday activity, especially among students (Lee, 2020). The mental health of college students has been influenced by the continuous spread of this pandemic as it causes further isolation measures and affects their everyday school and university schedules (Chen et al, 2020; Mei et al, 2011; Xiang et al, 2020). As the COVID-19 pandemic is inducing fear, a timely understanding of mental health status is urgently needed to implement intervention (Xiang et al, 2020)
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